Most commercial and residential buildings along with other structures are built using various framing methods. In particular, platform and balloon framing using wooden wall studs, floor joists and rafters are common practice for homes, and small offices and apartment buildings. In platform framing, the typical structure has a footing supporting a foundation wall with a flat top surface on which a sill plate is anchored. The wall studs are secured to the sill plate using nails as required by local codes, and a lower top plate and upper top plate are nailed to the other end of the wall studs to form the top supporting surface of the walls. Plywood or OSB sheathing is then typically nailed to the outside face of the stud walls to provide rigidity and strength against the sideways movement of the studs. The rafters or roof trusses and blocking would then be nailed to and supported by the top plates. The use of nails in such framing methods provides adequate resistance to the lateral motion of the framing components relative to each other and helps to prevent the framing members from pulling away from each other. The amount of leverage high winds and rapid changes in atmospheric pressure can produce at various locations within a structure's framing, however, can easily be sufficient to crack the framing members or pry the nails up at the fastening points. The uplifting force of a strong wind under an overhanging eave can be similar to the leverage provided by the claw end of a hammer used for pulling up nails. Similarly, a strong wind catching an insufficiently nailed edge or corner of a plywood sheet can pull the fastening nails out of the studs. To prevent such unfastening at the joining points, other types of fastening devices are used to add strength and resist the prying action on the nails and frame members by turning the nail's fastening direction by 90 degrees and relying upon the nails greater resistance to transverse forces. These aspects of basic framing are readily understood by those of ordinary skill in the art of framing and construction.
Another material used in frame construction is a weather resistant barrier known as house wrap or paper by those of ordinary skill in the art. House wrap is used to cover the outside of a structure to prevent the infiltration of drafts or wind and liquid water, while allowing water vapor to escape from the building.
In many locations throughout this country and in other places around the world, storms and other atmospheric events subject these existing frame structures to forces that can pull off roofs and strip siding and sheathing from the supporting walls. The typical residential or commercial building mentioned above is designed to support the downward load of the building above it. A foundation, therefore, supports the weight of the walls, flooring, rafters and roofing resting upon it, while the walls support the stories and roofing resting upon it, and the rafters or trusses support the weight of shingles and roofing materials, as well as occasional dead loads like snow. Such a typical design, however, fails to take into account the lateral or lifting forces that can be caused by high winds and sudden changes in atmospheric pressure that can occur during storms such as hurricanes or tornados. Seismic events can also create lateral forces that apply unexpected loads to a building's frame. The various means implemented to help secure the framing members of such structures against these forces, such as straps, clips and brackets tie the rafters or trusses of a roof to the upper members of the supporting walls to resist the winds that can catch overhanging eaves and pry the roof up. Some of these fasteners are rigid metal tie bars that extend from the roofing components to the building's foundation at discrete points along the length of the building as disclosed in Gnaedinger U.S. Pat. No. 5,870,861. These prior devices, however, do not secure the entire length of a building against both lateral and upward forces without interfering with the natural downward forces exerted on the frame over time. The rigid bars or brackets interfere with the downward loading of the building's structure because their rigid nature resists movement of the frame during its natural shrinkage and settling. Cabling has also been used to separately secure rafters to a foundation as disclosed in Gaddie et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,843,027, however such devices also only provide discrete fastening points to separate framing components rather than a way to comprehensively secure all the framing components uniformly over a continuous extended length of a frame structure, and would not provide lateral support.
Previous attempts involving attaching a high strength wall covering to the top and bottom ends of a wall have placed the wall covering on the interior side of the wall, as disclosed in the Gnaedinger patent. In such a position, however, the wall covering is incapable of aiding resistance to the lateral forces directed against the exterior wall, such as from high winds, since these forces tend to push the wall in the same direction as the tensile force being exerted by the wall covering. A flexible material attached along the interior side, therefore, does not prevent a wall from toppling inwards.
A sheet has also been used as lateral bracing in a building structure by spanning a pair of separated vertical supports or studs and reaching from a foundation to upper stories, as disclosed in Findleton U.S. Pat. No. 6,256,951.